One Day Polyethylene Glycol-3350 for Bowel Preparation in Pediatrics: A Literature Review

Bowel preparation for colonoscopy in children is a challenging procedure. Wide variety of preparation protocols exist, varying with the hospital. Unlike in adults, there is a lack of uniform bowel preparation protocol in children. Ideally, the bowel preparation agents are assessed by their safety, efficacy and tolerability. Unfortunately, none of the preparations currently available meets all of these criteria. However, since last decade, Polyethylene Glycol-3350 (PEG-3350) is gaining popularity for bowel preparation with reported safety, efficacy, and tolerability. The only major drawback of PEG-3350 without electrolyte was 4 days long preparation time thus raising the question if the duration of preparation time could be minimized and yet have same efficacy, safety, and tolerability of the medicine. Hence, one day PEG-3350 regimen was introduced eventually and is now being studied with increased dosage or combined with other laxatives. This is the first review which compiles the study so far conducted on one day PEG-3350 without electrolyte as colonoscopy bowel preparation in children and tries to summaries if this regimen can be commonly used in children for colonoscopy bowel preparation.